1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic sweepstakes systems. More particularly, the invention relates to an electronic sweepstakes system which provides sweepstakes players the ability to reveal their sweepstakes results in a number of entertaining formats. The invention includes a method for revealing sweepstakes entry results, and also includes a sweepstakes system and program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sweepstakes games are commonly used to promote the sale of various products or to encourage charitable donations. Generally, a sweepstakes game entry, or some fixed number of entries, are given to a purchaser of a sweepstakes qualifying product or to a donor in return for a charitable donation. The purchaser/donor/sweepstakes player may then redeem winning sweepstakes entries for the identified prizes. Sweepstakes prizes may be cash prizes, store credit prizes, or merchandise prizes for example. Commonly, the rules for a given sweepstakes game will define a top level or “grand” prize, and a number of other prize levels. A sweepstakes game may offer only one or a very small number of grand prizes, and larger numbers of prizes at one or more lower prize levels.
The results for the various sweepstakes entries may be determined in several different ways. In some sweepstakes games, each entry is associated with a given sweepstakes result before the entry is distributed to a purchaser/donor/player. In other sweepstakes games, each entry is associated with some identifier and a drawing is held to identify winning entries after the sweepstakes entries are distributed to purchasers/donors/players.
In sweepstakes games associated with the sale of products, the sweepstakes entries may be in the form of tickets (which may be referred to alternatively as playing pieces) that are incorporated in some fashion with the product packaging. For example, a cereal box may have a sweepstakes entry ticket printed on the cereal box itself, and the purchaser/sweepstakes player must cut the entry ticket from the box in order to redeem the entry for any associated prize. In another common example, a sweepstakes entry ticket may be printed on the inside surface of a soft drink lid or on an inside surface of a label secured to the soft drink bottle. In either case, the sweepstakes entry ticket may include a code for identification and/or verification purposes and, where the results are preassociated with the sweepstakes entries, an indicator showing the prize associated with the entry.
Other sweepstakes games do not rely on sweepstakes entry tickets incorporated in product packaging. In these sweepstakes games, separate sweepstakes entry tickets are given to the purchaser/donor/sweepstakes player at the time of the purchase/donation. These sweepstakes entry tickets are preprinted and made available to the retailer or charitable organization for distribution to purchasers/donors/players. As with sweepstakes entry tickets incorporated in product packaging, the tickets distributed separately from products include at least a code for identification and/or verification purposes, and may also include an indicator of the prize associated with the ticket when prizes are preassociated with entry tickets. Where the sweepstakes prizes are indicated in the preprinted entry tickets themselves, the prize indicators are preferably obscured in some fashion so that the ticket distributor cannot see the prize associated with a given ticket before the ticket is distributed. An opaque scratch-off material or an opaque peel-off tab or any other suitable arrangement may be used to obscure the prize indicator.
Some governmental regulations relating to sweepstakes games require that sweepstakes entries must be made available to nonpurchasers or nondonors. Thus, the rules for a given sweepstakes game may define an alternate method of entry (AMOE). A common AMOE requires a potential player to submit a postcard or other entry form to some distribution center. The distribution center responds to such a postcard or entry form by returning one or more sweepstakes entry tickets to the postcard/entry form sender.
Related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/201,487, entitled “Electronic Sweepstakes Entry Distribution System,” discloses a sweepstakes system that assigns sweepstakes entries from a pool of predetermined sweepstakes entries, with each entry being associated with a result in the sweepstakes game. A sweepstakes player may reveal the results associated with their sweepstakes entries at a player station which may show the results in any one of a number of different graphic formats, such as a reel-type gaming machine format, or a card game format.
In sweepstakes games that distribute sweepstakes entries from a predetermined set of sweepstakes entries, the predetermined set of sweepstakes entries places a constraint on the game formats that may be used for revealing the sweepstakes results to the sweepstakes players. In these cases, each game format for revealing the sweepstakes entry results must have play characteristics which match the characteristics of the predetermined set of sweepstakes entries. For example, the prizes available in the result revealing game format must match the prizes available in the sweepstakes game. Also, the prize distribution in the sweepstakes game dictates the prize distribution in the result revealing game format. These constraints on the result revealing game format made it difficult to provide a variety of game formats for revealing the sweepstakes results. In order to provide result revealing game formats with various different play characteristics, it was necessary to have multiple sweepstakes games in play with each sweepstakes game restricted to a corresponding set of result revealing game formats. That is, a sweepstakes player would receive sweepstakes entries from a given sweepstakes game and could then reveal the sweepstakes results only through a result revealing game format corresponding to the given sweepstakes game.